I wish I could sit this guy down and explain to him that he has no reason at all to regret what he did. He didn't 'spare Hitler'; he refused to fire on a fleeing stranger. What Hitler did afterwards is his own damn fault and no one else's, and this man has both courage and compassion. There is never a reason to regret an honorable action.

Yeah, I dunno....Hitler turned out to be a pretty good enemy, in terms of fighting the war. Suppose someone SANE had been at the helm of Nazi Germany? No stop-order at Dunkirk would have made all the difference between winning and losing for the Allies.

Gyrfalcon:Yeah, I dunno....Hitler turned out to be a pretty good enemy, in terms of fighting the war. Suppose someone SANE had been at the helm of Nazi Germany? No stop-order at Dunkirk would have made all the difference between winning and losing for the Allies.

Yup. That's why time travelers are not allowed to kill him. Do you know how much work it was to change history so Rommel didn't end up in charge? Or to make sure that Heydrich caught a bomb in Prague?As horrific as the toll was, it could have been worse. And was, in some possible timelines.

mome23:Gyrfalcon: Yeah, I dunno....Hitler turned out to be a pretty good enemy, in terms of fighting the war. Suppose someone SANE had been at the helm of Nazi Germany? No stop-order at Dunkirk would have made all the difference between winning and losing for the Allies.

Yup. That's why time travelers are not allowed to kill him. Do you know how much work it was to change history so Rommel didn't end up in charge? Or to make sure that Heydrich caught a bomb in Prague?As horrific as the toll was, it could have been worse. And was, in some possible timelines.

exactly! ... and that is just looking from a very small macro standpoint. If the events of WWII had even been slightly altered and even if the Allies finally won the war, this world would be very different today because it would've thrown the entire dynamics of the ensuing cold war into disarray. Heck for all we know if the cold war had been a different kind, WWIII may have already happened and we all won't even be here today talking about it.another reason why I don't believe time travel is possible because altering world history is just too damn dangerous and unpredictable that the very laws of nature just won't allow it!!

XMark:If this soldier had killed Hitler instead of sparing him, then someone else probably would have risen to power and more or less done the same thing. Maybe someone even more competent. You never know.

This. Hitler wasn't the only person who was a German nationalist after World War I and had hatred towards the Jews

PsiChick:I wish I could sit this guy down and explain to him that he has no reason at all to regret what he did. He didn't 'spare Hitler'; he refused to fire on a fleeing stranger. What Hitler did afterwards is his own damn fault and no one else's, and this man has both courage and compassion. There is never a reason to regret an honorable action.

PsiChick:I wish I could sit this guy down and explain to him that he has no reason at all to regret what he did. He didn't 'spare Hitler'; he refused to fire on a fleeing stranger. What Hitler did afterwards is his own damn fault and no one else's, and this man has both courage and compassion. There is never a reason to regret an honorable action.

Wouldn't have made a difference. If it wasn't him, it would have been someone else, and even without the Nazis, there was still Japan to worry about, who, if you recall, basically Started the war with their invasion of China.

PsiChick:I wish I could sit this guy down and explain to him that he has no reason at all to regret what he did. He didn't 'spare Hitler'; he refused to fire on a fleeing stranger. What Hitler did afterwards is his own damn fault and no one else's, and this man has both courage and compassion. There is never a reason to regret an honorable action.

DreamSnipers:This man seems like the finest form of humanity to me. Rarest of courage and a great sense of honor, I would have been proud to know him.

You sound aryan.

But in all serious, everything that has needed to be said has been said. This guy acted honorably. If he killed Hitler, congratulations... nothing would have changed other than maybe someone without syphilis eating their brain causing them to make horrible decisions being in charge of the extermination of the jews. Maybe they even get wiped out entirely. Maybe we lose WW2. Maybe we never enter WW2 when we do and they take out the USSR and then come for us.

And for that price, all we have to pay is one honorable human being executing a wounded human being in cold blood and living with the knowledge they murdered someone in cold blood.

But this isn't a What If scenario. This is how history unfolded. The things that happened had to have happened the way they did, for better or for worse. What is important is we learn from history's mistakes, not ask ourselves "Well what if we did this differently..."

That is not how progress is made. Stuck on what we could have done differently is counterproductive to what decisions we make now in the present.

We've all helped human beings who were horrible in some way or the other, even if we don't know it. If we ever worked retail, we've taken the money from criminals who earned it through harmful actions to other humans and their families. If we ever worked in a restaurant, we've nourished and sustained the bodies of horrible human beings, possibly even murderers and rapists that will never have been caught. If we ever for one instant donated money to a charitable cause, that money could be used to help a human being in need who later grows up to be a serial killer.

But I don't regret my actions, and neither should anyone else. Because it is our individual actions that matter. Not what someone else does or does not do with their life. Hitler could have gone on to be a famous artist, but he did not. He made decisions of his own accord. He lived with them and died because of them.

To expect anyone to regret interacting with him in the past and not killing him outright is lunacy. If I went outside and shot another person in the head and said I prevented World War III since this person would have been the cause of it, I'd have been arrested for murder and seen as a crazy person.

... and if World War III never happened, who could ever prove me wrong?

Kick The Chair:I'm not sure if it could have been worse... WWII was very horrific

You lack imagination. WWII was rather bad, but on an industrial scale with little pockets of ultimate evil mixed in. It could very easily have been ultimate evil on an industrial scale with little pockets of rather bad.

mome23:Yup. That's why time travelers are not allowed to kill him. Do you know how much work it was to change history so Rommel didn't end up in charge? Or to make sure that Heydrich caught a bomb in Prague?As horrific as the toll was, it could have been worse. And was, in some possible timelines.

"Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends. I have not much hope that Gollum can be cured before he dies, but there is a chance of it. And he is bound up with the fate of the Ring. My heart tells me that he has some part to play yet, for good or ill, before the end; and when that comes, the pity of Bilbo may rule the fate of many - yours not least." - J.R.R. Tolkien, Fellowship Of the Ring

MadSkillz:"Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends. I have not much hope that Gollum can be cured before he dies, but there is a chance of it. And he is bound up with the fate of the Ring. My heart tells me that he has some part to play yet, for good or ill, before the end; and when that comes, the pity of Bilbo may rule the fate of many - yours not least." - J.R.R. Tolkien, Fellowship Of the RingShia LeBeouf

Shia LeBeouf:MadSkillz: "Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends. I have not much hope that Gollum can be cured before he dies, but there is a chance of it. And he is bound up with the fate of the Ring. My heart tells me that he has some part to play yet, for good or ill, before the end; and when that comes, the pity of Bilbo may rule the fate of many - yours not least." - J.R.R. Tolkien, Fellowship Of the Ring Shia LeBeouf